href="#ulink_ace8ef4b-d950-58f9-b2e8-0be4759e9340">5]. He was not alone in his generation in believing that scientific progress might soon lead to the development of social welfare and a peaceful Europe. Sadly, his aspirations were far ahead of their time, but we are now fortunate that our own generation has the unique opportunity to translate his dream of a “big European republic” into reality.
References
1Delaporte E: Deux éminent savants et académiciens: Apollinaire Bouchardat et son fils Gustave Bouchardat. Bull Soc d’Études d’Avallon 2009;150:44–59.
2Joslin EP: Apollinaire Bouchardat. Diabetes 1952;1:490–491.
3Bouchardat A: De la glycosurie ou Diabète sucré son traitement hygiénique, ed 2. Paris, Libraire Germer Baillière, 1883.
4Bouchardat A: Nouveau formulaire magistrale. Paris, Germer Baillère, 1845.
5Bouchardat A: Traité d’hygiène publique et privée, basée sur l’étiologie. Paris, Librairie Germer Ballière, 1881.
6Bouchardat A: Entretiens populaires. Évariste Thévenin. Paris, Libraire De L. Hachette, 1865.
Dr. Viktor Jörgens
Fuhlrottweg 15
DE–40591 Düsseldorf (Germany)
Jörgens V, Porta M (eds): Unveiling Diabetes - Historical Milestones in Diabetology. Front Diabetes. Basel, Karger, 2020, vol 29, pp 40–50 (DOI: 10.1159/000506549)
______________________
Oskar Minkowski and the Discovery of Pancreatic Diabetes
Viktor Jörgens
Executive Director EASD/EFSD 1987–2015, Düsseldorf, Germany
______________________
Abstract
Oskar Minkowski was nominated six times for the Nobel Prize. He can be called the “grandfather of the discovery of insulin” since in 1889 he discovered that the removal of the pancreas in dogs induced diabetes mellitus. The presentation of this discovery together with his senior colleague Freiherr Josef von Mering was the highlight of the first world congress of physiology in 1889. Minkowski was born 1858 in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. His family immigrated to Königsberg in Prussia, where he studied medicine. Prof. Bernhard Naunyn became supervisor of his thesis and Minkowski followed him to Strasbourg in 1988. Finally, in 1909, Minkowski was nominated in the prominent University of Breslau, the capital of Silesia, where he worked until his retirement in 1926. During his time in Breslau, Minkowski became one of the leaders of German Internal Medicine and chaired the first German insulin committee. When the German government decided to send a team of the best German physicians to Moscow to support the care of Lenin, Minkowski was one of those chosen. Prof. Oskar Minkowski died near Berlin on June 18, 1931.
© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel
One hundred years after the discovery of pancreatic diabetes, Rolf Luft stated in Diabetologia: “Undoubtedly Oscar Minkowski contributed one of the most important discoveries to diabetes research. To my mind, Minkowski presented the first proof of the impact of the pancreas in diabetes, and that the disease was a consequence of the lack of a pancreatic substance transported by the blood stream. This work was the real impetus for all latter work to extract insulin. It was certainly an original discovery, and the most important one in the history of diabetes” [1].
The story begins in Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. As you leave the old city center to cross the “quiet river” Nemunas (“Memel” in German) towards the suburb of Alexotas which, before World War II, was home to a mainly Jewish community, you will find Hermann and Oskar Minkowski Street, a street proudly named after two famous sons of the city.
Oskar Minkowski was born here on 13 January 1858. In 1872 anti-Semitic measures adopted by the tsarist government forced the Minkowski family to emigrate to the nearby Königsberg in Prussia. Max, Minkowski’s older brother, later took over the family business and became prosperous here as a middleman, trading in grain. Hermann, his younger brother, become a world-famous professor of mathematics and found a place in history – all students of mathematics know his name. His contributions to the geometry of numbers were essential and his book Space and Time was a precursor to the discoveries of Einstein, who attended his lectures. It is highly probable that Hermann would have shared the Noble Prize with Einstein had he not died on January 12, 1909 from appendicitis.
In Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) the family lived in the city center, in Knochenstrasse 31–32, near the river Pregel. This was a street lined with the buildings of merchants, akin to the streets of Lübeck as depicted in Thomas Mann’s literary masterpiece Buddenbrooks. His father’s business was flourishing and two of his sons went to the University of Königsberg, which dates back to 1544. This place of learning was the proud alma mater of such imminent names as Immanuel Kant and the physician and physicist Prof. Hermann von Helmholtz, who invented the ophthalmoscope in Königsberg in 1851 – a discovery which became vital for people with diabetes.
Oskar Minkowski studied medicine in Freiburg and Strasbourg and completed his medical studies in Königsberg. His medical thesis was accepted in 1881. The supervisor of his thesis was Prof. Bernhard Naunyn (1839–1925; Fig. 1), who was the head of the Medical University Clinic in Königsberg from 1872 to 1888. Before Königsberg, Naunyn had worked in Berlin, Dorpat, and Bern.
In his autobiography, Bernhard Naunyn describes his favorite pupil, Oscar Minkowski: “I found a first-class employee in Oskar Minkowski. He was of substantial benefit to me. Minkowski is a man of outstanding intelligence. His independent and clear way of thinking and his mental mobility based on very speedy and precise perceptions gave him a perfect basis for scientific research” [2].
Fig. 1. Prof. Bernhard Naunyn, from Naunyn [2].
Minkowski’s dissertation was a study of the relationship between electrical stimulation of the brain and blood circulation. His abilities won him an assistantship in Naunyn’s clinic. Ernst Stadelmann, Minkowski’s predecessor, had been analyzing diabetic urine and had isolated an unknown acid as one of its components. In 1884 Minkowski identified this substance as β-hydroxybutyrate [3]. Further research enabled Minkowski to confirm the importance of acidosis in diabetic coma. Naunyn was also investigating the role of the liver in metabolism. In 1885, Naunyn
